Love at First Screening

It's Cynic's Choice, baby! Chelsea reminds us all what this podcast is truly about-- romantic comedies and queer love. Listen in as our hosts discuss the high camp of But I'm A Cheerleader. Listen as they discuss gender as a performance, how Natasha Lyonne should never again play a straight character, and how brilliant satire like this handles heavy topics like conversion therapy so de...

This week, our hosts travel back to 1960 after a brief stop at a soon-to-be divorcee's 25-year high school reunion in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), starring Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage. While Chelsea and Madison's conversations about family, second-wave feminism, and meaningful character development remind us that this podcast still has a pulse, our hosts agree the film itself was dead on arr...

This week, our hosts take on a well-lauded movie in the romantic (comedy?) genre,  Sleepless in Seattle. While Chelsea would have rather watched paint dry, Madison defends the merit of the movie-- even if she doesn't buy into the concept that this movie is romantic, nor comedic. Would this be a thriller with a different lens and music? Does that poor child actor need therapy? Does Tom Hanks? Why d...

In the season six premiere, our hosts prepare to joust over the not-so-romantic comedy A Knight's Tale (2001). Madison proclaims she has finally broken the season premiere curse, but Chelsea thinks her cohost has tampered with the results. Either way, they both agree that people would wage war for the pleasure of Heath Ledger's smile, and Chaucer has never been more accurately portrayed in...

CW: moderately explicit sexual content, drinking, and rom coms that actually involve communication. On this heart-shaped holiday, our hosts invite you to take a drive with them through a nondescript mountain town to a sketchy distillery with three gal pals who take a trip that changes their friendship dynamic forever (possibly for the better). Mads drives Chelsea and you, dear listener, through a...

In their highly-anticipated Rom Com Respawn bonus episode, our hosts spend the evening with Ben Stiller and a menagerie of animated historical figures as they try to play matchmaker with Night at the Museum (2006). Chelsea supports the efforts of the National Wildlife Research Center to eliminate rabies in raccoons by 2053. Timothée Chalamet joins the ranks of Madison's celebrity nemeses. And amid...

Get cozy this holiday season with a toasty drink of your choice in a well-loved mug and crack open a feel good rom com. Which one should you read? Obviously one of the best sapphic Christmas novels out there-- Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun! Ever since our hosts read this last year, they knew it had to be discussed on the podcast. Now, that dream is reality! Chelsea and Madison discuss the...

In the season five finale, our hosts return to an episode formerly lost to the internet ether as they discuss Serendipity (2001) ... again. (And if you're reading this, their second-chance romance had a happy ending!) Special guest Lily has qualms with the main characters' blatant disregard for their romantic commitments — although for fidelity's biggest fan, she would not hesitate to kick Madison...

Madison puts on her smarty pants and comes prepared to talk all things  Desk Set (1957) with Chelsea. This Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy romp explores the age old battle of the intersection of industrialization and the human condition. Digressions include the Luddite movement and AI, but the conversation in this one really serves to remind listeners that both hosts actually did get something fro...

Pack your party-ready wardrobe because we've RSVPd "I do" to an engagement (or seven) with The Wedding Year (2019). Starring Sarah Hyland and Tyler James Willams, with a special cameo from Wanda Sykes, this marriage manic rom com has our hosts weeping for every guest's bank account—and cheering for the gays (the only healthy relationship in this mess of a movie). P.S. Everyone (except Mara and Jak...

Spooky season is upon us, the witching hour has struck, and our hosts alongside their fabulous guest, Ella, leap from the roof and land in the gorgeous New England landscape of 1998's Practical Magic. Ella provides valuable, fresh insight for a movie the hosts have seen a million times and reminds us that while the bar is set in hell for men, we can always raise the standards. Folks, if he isn't h...

This week it's another Cynic's Choice! Has Chelsea picked an actual Rom Com, or has she pulled a fast one on the LAFSters yet again? As our hosts dive into Laggies (2014), Madison may be too distracted by Keira Knightley's American-accented performance to notice. With Sam Rockwell and Cholë Grace Moretz, this tale of feeling lost in adulthood — caught between expectation and personal truth — leads...

As the moon grows fuller, our hosts and their fabulous guest, Andrea, find themselves quite  Moonstruck  (1987) by Cher's beauty and Nicolas Cage's dedication to his performance. Tune in as they discuss newly acquired vocal stims (MY HAND), the way Nic Cage should never say "To the bed" like that again, and how we should all revere Olympia Dukakis. Are men chasing youth (and women) to run from dea...

This week, we circle back to Chappell Roan and the troublesome nature of parasocial relationships with a thoughtful discussion of The Idea of You (2024). Starring Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, this latest entry into the canon of what some are calling "MILF Cinema" has our hosts contemplating the perceptions of age gap romances, examining societal expectations of mothers, and asking: How th...

This week, Mads puts Chelsea's friendship with her to the ultimate test as they watch 2012's Wanderlust. Do you long to be disturbed by Paul Rudd saying overtly disgusting sexual things in a mirror? Do you wish to feel let down by Jennifer Aniston? Do you want to question your allegiance to watching anything Kathryn Hahn is in? Do you want to replace Mads as Chelsea's permanent guest host? Boy, do...

This week, our hosts embark on a campy adventure to track down a priceless artifact at gunpoint with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum in The Lost City (2022). While Madison thinks the pink jumpsuit lasted far too long in that jungle, she agrees with Chelsea's assertion that this 21st-century take on Romancing the Stone improves the "romance novelist finds herself on a romantic adventure&...

This week, our hosts find themselves embroiled in a discussion of the issues of philanthropy, system theory, and who should be driving community support projects. Is  Two Weeks Notice  the rom-com exploration of Audre Lorde's quote “For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring ab...

This week, our hosts hit the ice with two Olympic hopefuls to discuss the sports romance The Cutting Edge (1992), starring Moira Kelly and D. B. Sweeney. While their banter about writing idols and the 2024 Paris Olympics had Chelsea and Madison feeling inspired at the onset of this episode, dissecting the film's middling romantic plot and character arcs left them dissatisfied. For the viewer, it m...

Welcome to Season Five! This first episode is classic LAFS! Madison is reporting from an underground tunnel by the sound of her audio and Chelsea admits that while this isn't the worst season opener, movie-wise, this still isn't quite her cup of tea. This week, our hosts see the beginnings of a return to a rom-com standard they've been longing for: Shakespearean rom-com adaptations. Rising star ho...

In this special bonus episode, LAFSters write in to share their horrible, no-good, very bad dates with our hosts. From pretentious redheads with business cards to a man with the audacity to deny a woman the joy of laser tag, our contributors (and their poor cars) have survived the worst dating has to offer! Connect With Us Follow us on Instagram @loveatfirstscreening or send an email to loveatfirs...

Most comedies age poorly, but our hosts find this season's Rom Com Respawn pick, My Cousin Vinny (1992), not guilty! Madison asks Chelsea who they should call when her antics inevitably land them in jail, and Chelsea questions the correlation between her rising anxiety levels and her proximity to Madison. Starring Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, and the incomparable Marisa Tomei, our hosts agree the...

Host note: at some points during recording, Chelsea uses the incorrect pronouns when discussing the author. This was unintentional. Casey McQuiston uses they/them pronouns. CW: Queer outing In the most long-awaited second part of season four's bookish two-part bonus extravaganza, Chelsea and Madison discuss Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue (2019). This episode is a longtime coming-- both...

CW: Queer outing In the first part of season four's bookish two-part bonus extravaganza, Chelsea and Madison discuss the film adaptation of Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue ( 2023 ). In this first episode, they discuss the movie as a standalone film and explore both how it fits into the rom-com genre, but also how it fits into queer media as a whole. Listen in as they discuss...

In their season four finale, our hosts deliver classicly differing opinions on the 1984 Action/Adventure Rom Com Romancing the Stone. When a romance novelist journeys to Colombia to rescue her kidnapped sister, she finds herself on an adventure she could only imagine writing alongside a cantankerous, exotic bird smuggler who's a far cry from any hero. Madison finds herself melting into the pages o...

CW: Suicidal ideation/attempt This episode took a whole extra day to render, not because of Madison’s ancient computer wheezing its way through production, but because of how much Chelsea hated this movie. Chelsea’s derision, disdain, and disparagement for the 1954 film, Sabrina, is really what this podcast is all about: Madison trying to defend truly awful movies while Chelsea explains how the on...